December is often a time of year when things quiet down for marketers (except for the spike in agency parties). But this year it feels dominated by a whole lot of scenario brainstorming and re-planning. The common theme is how to do “more with less”.

I started kicking around cartoon ideas around “more with less” and the metaphor of a drought came to mind. While some brands with deep pockets will use this time to maintain spending and grow faster than less-funded competitors, most brands are facing budget cuts like they’ve never seen before.

In a drought, it’s a good time to re-evaluate entirely what you’re doing. The answer isn’t to just use less water on the same old thing, it’s to try things that don’t take a lot of water.

David Taylor and David Nichols published some handy tips on recession-proof branding recently. Also, Adam Morgan just re-released his classic book, Eating the Big Fish, which shows there’s a lot you can learn from challenger brands in a recession.